


Two for Two

by sinnythesinner



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Family, Dipper and Mabel's parents are deceased, Gen, Pines Family Bonding, Portal never happened AU, See Bratjedi for slightly more info, Stan and Ford take care of the kids, family au, monster hunting, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-24
Updated: 2015-10-24
Packaged: 2018-04-27 22:25:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5066854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinnythesinner/pseuds/sinnythesinner
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Collection of stories placed in a pocket AU where Dipper and Mabel's parents died when they were babies and Stan and Ford are the next of kin to take care of them.</p><p>Chapter 1; Ford forgets that Dipper and Mabel are still young, and he shouldn't be taking them monster hunting. Naturally, he does anyway...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two for Two

**Author's Note:**

> See bratjedi0 on tumblr to find out more about this AU, I just wanted to write within that universe.

From day one, rules were set in place to ensure that nothing would ever happen to the kids. One of them would _always_ have an eye on the twins. One of them would be with a child at (almost) all times.  Stan would handle the boy trouble when Mabel got older and Ford would try to keep Dipper from neglecting his studies for research. And those were only _some_ of the rules; the system set up by Stanford and Stanley to keep Mabel and Dipper, _their kids_ , safe and sound.

Sometimes, Ford forgot that they were still his babies. Which made him forget another very important rule. Absolutely **_no_** dangerous monster hunting for the twins until they were old enough to handle it, which (preferably) wouldn’t be until they were late into their teens. _Extremely_ late.

The product of Ford forgetting that rule was an angry Stan. A _very_ angry Stan. He could get mad at others, like snot-nosed brats on the playground that pushed Dipper into the dirt or that prissy little Pacifica that always talked down to Mabel, and plot to take very acute revenge. But when something happened that was _Ford’s_ doing? That was when Stan Pines gained a righteous fury; he became a quiet hurricane, bent on causing Hell for his brother because his brother was who hurt their kids.

Ford recalled the worst of all the times easily.

[][][][][]

“I’ll go with ya, just wait a second!” Stan shouted out the door. Ford, who was holding up an EMF device and trying to figure out where the readings were coming from made a noise of impatience, and turned towards the shack.

“If you don’t hurry _up_ , Stanley, we’ll lose it!” he declared.

“I still have tourists, poindexter, I can’t just leave!”

Ford groaned and then looked back down at his EMF. The readings were too high for him to go anywhere without someone to go with him, but if Stan didn’t hurry up Ford would lose it _all together_. He didn’t even know what “it” was just yet, but the opportunity to catalogue a potentially new creature couldn’t just be _passed up_. But of course, Stan didn’t care as much as Ford did, and he was made to wait while his brother went on talking about _fake_ anomalies instead of the real ones.

(Granted, humans feared the unknown, so if Stan were to bring in some of the creatures they deal with on a daily basis he’d probably lose all of his customers.)

“Grunkle Ford?” a hesitant voice called up to him. Ford looked down to see Dipper looking around nervously. He managed a slightly more patient smile and kneeled, wondering what could be bothering his boy so much.

“Yes? Is something the matter?” he asked, ruffling Dipper’s hair.

“Um…” Dipper’s eyes darted back and forth. He leaned in closer to speak, “C-Can me and Mabel come with you?”

Ford looked stunned at the question. He rose an eyebrow, and then looked up, seeing Mabel peeking out of the door to the Mystery Shack gift shop, but hid the moment Ford’s eyes dropped to her. He looked back down at Dipper, who was fidgeting badly.

“My boy,” Ford sighed, prepared to shoot into another lecture on just why his Polaris Star and Ursa Major couldn’t come with him, when his EMF went up again, and he completely forgot what he was going to say. He looked back to Dipper, and then up at the Shack gift shop, where Mabel was still peeking through the door. He heard his brother shouting something to more gullible tourists and then weighed the pros and cons in his mind. Apparently, he didn’t weigh enough cons against the pros, for he sighed and nodded.

“Both of you, grab a pack from under the counter in the shop and come on.”

Dipper’s face lit up immediately, and he went running towards the door. Mabel’s eyes brightened as well; she wasn’t as into monsters and the like as her brother and great uncle, but occasionally she wanted to bond with them. To see the world the way they saw it and understand what she was seeing the way they did. There had been many a day where Dipper had fallen asleep in Ford’s lab and brought upstairs, only to have Mabel be brought back down because she was awake and wanted to know what was being worked on too. At ten, they were always on a quest for knowledge.

The two returned from inside the shack with the packs on, and practically barreled into Ford. Their great uncle smiled at their enthusiasm and would have laughed at their adorable antics (they were both declaring that they were great researchers, though Mabel was a great researcher with even greater stickers, see, Dip, these are scratch and sniff!) had his EMF not gone off again. Dipper and Mabel quieted and looked up at their Grunkle for wisdom, and Ford was surprised at how attentive they were.

“Alright, my little apprentices,” and both of them seemed to grow even more excited at that, “we’re going to go and look into whatever this could be, but we’re going to be _very careful_ , alright?”

“Yes Grunkle Ford!” Mabel replied, bouncing on her toes.

“Shouldn’t we tell Grunkle Stan?” Dipper frowned.

Once again, before Ford could form a rational thought (and rethink his decision to take the kids) the EMF squealed. He looked at it and then back at the Mystery Shack before shaking his head.

“No time, my boy. Come, we have to move quickly.” And with that, Ford began herding them into the woods, the air filled with questions from Mabel.

An unease settled in the pit of Dipper’s stomach, but he pushed the feeling down as much as he could. After all, he and his twin were spending time with their uncle. What could go wrong?

[][][][][]

Stan knew something was amiss when he didn’t hear Mabel in the TV room where he’d left her before starting his last tour of the day. He went searching through the house; she had to be around here somewhere. She had agreed to helping him clean up the kitchen for dinner, and Dipper had _promised_ to help with dinner while Ford helped Mabel with her homework.

“Kids!” he called up towards the attic. Silence. Red flags started going up fast in his mind, and Stan practically _leapt_ up the stairs to the attic. Pretty much shoving the door open, Stan found that neither of his ten year old pumpkins were there. He ran back down the steps, heading into the gift shop where Soos was finishing with the last sale of the day.

“Soos! Where are the backpacks we keep under the counter?” he demanded to know.

“Whoa there, Mr. Pines,” Soos looked confused as to why the question was being asked, “Dipper and Mabel grabbed two of ‘em and went with Mr. Pines into the woods.”

His worst fears confirmed, Stan cursed very colourfully.

_“That idiot!”_

He told Soos to watch the Shack and grabbed the third of four packs beneath the counter. He ran out the door and headed into the woods, prepared for almost anything and ready to _punch_ something (preferably Ford’s face, especially if either Dipper or Mabel were hurt at all). He pulled out the EMF in the pack and started trying to track the direction the readings were coming from. Oh, when he got his hands on Ford he was going to _kill him_!

[][][][][]

This thing was going to _kill them_!

It took seeing Dipper pull Mabel back from nearly slipping over the edge of a cliff for Ford to finally realize that this? This thing he did where he took the kids with him into the forest to chase some potentially (confirmed) deadly monster? _Not a good idea in the slightest._

“Dipper!” Ford shouted when his nephew was separated from him and Mabel. Mabel, of course (why couldn’t she be the _cautious_ twin?), tried running after him, only to narrowly avoid getting swiped by claws when Ford pulled her back by her sweater.

“Grunkle Ford!” Mabel was near tears, watching her brother who was cowering just behind the large beast. Ford looked around, trying to think fast, and saw the hallowed base of a tree. Quickly, he picked up Mabel and, shielding her face from the view of the horrid creature, he managed to avoid a few more attempts the monster made at trying to grab them. It seemed like forever before he reached the tree, and immediately he pushed her in. Mabel (and likely Dipper, if Ford could just _reach_ him!) could only just barely fit in, which meant the monster definitely wouldn’t be able to.

Turning, Ford saw why he’d had the time to push Mabel into the tree’s base; the great beast had shifted its attention to Dipper, who had reached into his pack and pulled out the smaller crossbow Ford made a point of keeping in them. They had only just started the kids’ lessons in self-defense, weapons training was still a long way off, so Ford knew Dipper had no idea what he was doing.

“Leave my uncle and sister alone!” Dipper shouted, pulling the trigger on the crossbow. A bolt shot out, hitting the beast in its face, just below its glowing, yellow, eyes. It screeched in pain, doubling back a bit, before its attempts at ridding the world of Ford’s little Ursa Major renewed with more vigor than before. Dipper had the instincts to run the moment the monster turned back to him, making a break for Ford.

Ford was trying very hard not to lose his head. On the one hand, his nephew had managed to wound a great, hulking mass of destruction with a single _crossbow bolt_ , which had a bit of pride swelling in his heart. On the _other_ hand, the monster was reaching for his nephew to possibly squeeze the life out of him, and if that happened Ford would probably die of a heart attack immediately, and he couldn’t have that. He definitely planned to live to see Dipper and Mabel head off to college. Which meant ensuring that they would be _alive_ to go to college. Plus, Stan would kill him if he didn’t save the kids.

“Dipper, my boy, quickly!” Ford ran at Dipper as well, arms open, prepared to scoop his nephew into his arms and never let go if he could possibly help it.

Dipper’s legs carried him as fast as they could. He was so _close_ ; he jumped and landed squarely in Ford’s arms just as Ford turned away from the beast when it made to hit them, swat them like flies, planning to shield Dipper from as much of the attack as he could.

“Grunkle Stan!” Mabel’s shout and the pain that never came were what spurred Ford to look up, just in time to see Stanley come swooping in on a grappling line, kicking the beast in the face and landing on its head. Stan did what he did best, and began punching the daylights out of the beast, aggravating the wound Dipper had caused. The monster screeched, and Ford saw the distraction as his opportunity.

He rushed over to the tree, pushing Dipper in beside his sister.

“Stay here and don’t come out!” he ordered.

“But Grunkle Ford-!” the plea died on Dipper’s lips when Ford gave him a stern look. Instead, Dipper turned to Mabel, who immediately tackled him into a hug, shouting about how she thought she’d never get to see her twin again.

Stanford rushed back to help his brother, knowing already that this was a two man job, not a one man and two kids job. He should have simply waited for Stanley; his Ursa Major and Polaris Star wouldn’t be in danger if he had just _waited_! He didn’t even have to look up at Stan to know that his brother was positively _fuming_ with anger. Anything that dangered Mabel and Dipper rightfully deserved that righteous fury, and Ford knew that he was going to receive the full brunt of it, intensified by the fact that Ford had _willingly_ taken them into danger.

With another full-grown adult that knew what he was doing with him, Ford was able to figure out the monster’s weakness. A bit of creative ingenuity (and a spark from Stan’s brass knuckles) they managed to light the beast on fire, which caused it to dissipate into… what seemed like inky blackness. When it was complete _goop_ Stan tried to take a breath, but didn’t let it go until he’d rushed over to the tree his kids were in and scooped both of them out to hug them.

“What were you _thinking_ , going with your uncle Ford like that?!” he demanded, voice rising a bit. “You could have been hurt, or _killed_!”

“We’re sorry, Grunkle Stan,” Mabel murmured, wrapping her arms tightly around Stan.

“We-we just wanted to help Grunkle Ford,” Dipper whispered. He never did well when Stan was angry at him; it always made him feel like he couldn’t do things right, because Stan hardly ever got this mad at him, maybe once a year at _most_. Stan near cracked from the tears in his nephew’s eyes. He pulled Dipper into another hug, gently squeezing him before letting go and looking up at Ford.

“Stanley, don’t be too hard on them. This was entirely my fault,” Ford sighed, stepping close.

“Oh, I know,” Stan said and nothing more (he didn’t have to). He merely lifted both children into his arms, passed Mabel off to Ford, and walked silently with Dipper in his arms back in the direction of their home, leaving behind the mess of their physical fight and heading home to have a fight of a different nature, Ford would come to find out…

**Author's Note:**

> Questions comments concerns? See my tumblr of the same name (imsinninimwinnin)


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